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Working Smoke Alarm Means Life-or-Death

Neither apartment had the benefit of a working smoke alarm. Without that device, there was no warning for these families when flames started to rise and smoke gathered

[New York: Commentary]

Last weekend, two tragic fires claimed eight lives.

In Manhattan on Oct. 11, flames and black smoke in a Chelsea apartment wiped out an entire family – two parents and four young children. The next day, a 12-year-old boy and his uncle died during another fire in Brooklyn.

Neither apartment had the benefit of a working smoke alarm. Without that device, there was no warning for these families when flames started to rise and smoke gathered – not until it was too late.

In New York City last year, 95 people died in fires. More than two-thirds of those deaths had one thing in common: no working smoke alarms. What makes these events truly tragic is knowing how easily they might have been avoided.

A smoke alarm is your family's protector. Removing the battery or disconnecting the wire that connects it to your building's electrical system puts everyone's life at risk.

Even though fire deaths are at historic lows, every death is one too many. Many of them are preventable. Keeping a working smoke alarm in your home is critical to every New Yorker's safety.